There is a photo I see all of the time when I do a  bare bones breastfeeding search. It shows a woman in a white cape breastfeeding her daughter, Ruth. Her name is Beatrice Baxter Ruyl. I’ve never thought one way or the other about this photograph because it has always been so easy to find, but today I decided to learn more about Beatrice. Perhaps she would come up in a Google search. And sure enough, she did.

Beatrice Baxter Ruyl was an illustrator for the Boston Herald in the early 1900s as well as an author. She was also a socialite who had many artistic friends like Gertrude Käsebier and Fred Holland Day.

This is a photograph taken by Gertrude Käsebier of Ruyl and her daughter in 1905. And if you look on the Museum of Modern Art web site you will find an even prettier breastfeeding photograph of Beatrice and Ruth Ruyl.

However, as the below poster reveals, other agencies and states had another agenda entirely. This is a poster from the Cleveland Division of Health and FDA promoting milk, showing a large bottle of milk next to couples smiling, playing golf, tennis, and two babies. It was distributed in Ohio and was also a part of the WPA Art Program, 1940.

I have another photograph for you today; one that shows — yet again — that breastfeeding, especially for those who lived a rural lifestyle and had yet to be convinced of formula, was a part of everyday life.

Although this photo isn’t dated, I wager a bet it was taken during the mid to late 1930s. It may potentially be the early 1940s. What is particularly telling about this photograph are the notes on the back of the photo (below) and the fact that once again breastfeeding in public was no big deal before the formula industry changed the perception of infant feeding (almost irreparably) in this country. The men could care less that a woman’s exposed breast is in full view of everyone, although the little boy on the right does seem a little enthralled by the baby breastfeeding.

Written Notes on Item
a) Part of Social Hour audience at Shafter Camp (handwritten on reverse); b) Todd’s favorite picture of an “Okie Family” in Shafter F.S.A. Camp. Nursing babies was the usual thing at camp “Socials.” (typed and attached to reverse)

Most of you have probably heard about the big Facebook virtual nurse-in that happened over the weekend. Tens of thousands of nursing moms are upset that Facebook bans nursing photos, but they have no qualms about showing pornographic ads to their users.

Well, this disdain for nursing — public or otherwise — is certainly not new. Check out this image from July 12, 1950. If you have been following my work for awhile now you have seen this photo before. I thought the imagery is especially potent now given that moms are still expected to hide behind partitions, so to speak, when they breastfeed.

The caption on the photo says: Hilda Kassell, E. 53rd St., New York City. Mother nursing baby.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division: Gottscho-Schleisner Collection (Library of Congress), [reproduction number, LC-G613-T-57610 ] Photographer: Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc., photographer.

It’s been awhile since I blogged last. I often do a disappearing act when life gets in the way. I’ve been thinking of ways to create some sort of community with all of you, my dear readers. Getting constant feedback from you helps me keep going as it takes immense time and dedication to hunt down historic breastfeeding photos. I also often think about how all of this work could easily translate into a Ph.D. Maybe one day. But I am always encouraged by communication with readers.

What do you think? How do you think we can all stay more connected? You with me and me with you? I’d love to create a blogroll of readers’ blogs so I can visit and read about what’s going on in your life. If you have a blog and read here regularly, please leave a comment with your URL.

Think about it. I’d love to create some type of community with those of you who read regularly. It will help me keep digging for photos and it will also help me meet more of you, not just in the comments.

I found this photo recently and think it’s one of the most beautiful photographs I’ve seen in the two years since I’ve been discovering these black and white photos online.

Here is a French women nursing her baby in Rouen in April 1946. The father of the baby was an American GI.

This morning I was fixated with a book called Don’t Kill Your Baby. Many of you probably know it very well. In fact, I have read it before, but it seems that every time I re-read I find a fact or a point that I’ve missed before.

I thought this quote was quite telling about how breastfeeding rates began to decline in the 1930s. It all started in the hospitals with their insistence that mothers did now instinctively know how to care for their own babies. This caused many of the mothers to be separated from their babies for up to 24 hours sometimes and in that period their babies had already been introduced to baby formula. Check out this quote about how milk companies got into the hospitals to stake their dominance over infant feeding.

The expectant mother may first hear about PET milk when learning about formula preparations in the hospital’s orientation class. She and her husband may select the baby’s name from a list supplied by a company medical relations representative. The name card on her baby’s crib in the hospital nursery may bear the PET insignia. Most important her baby’s first bottle of formula may very well be made with PET brand evaporated milk. The “little things” add up to a convincing acceptance of the PET brand.

Above is the nursery at the Cairns General Hospital at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers’ community in February 1942. Eleven Mile Corner, Arizona.

And here are the babies the bottles are intended for.

Wolf Jacqueline. Don’t Kill Your Baby. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2001.

I am sure these nurses have only the best intentions for the care and health of these babies but you have to stop and wonder if anyone back then thought a mother’s natural milk would be best for her premature baby. Do you think that occurred to any of them at any point?

Well, the short answer has to be “no” because the medical establishment taught nurses and doctors that cow’s milk was the optimal nutrition for a child that is born prematurely. How that logic came to be held so prominently is beyond me. Here are three nurses giving formula to babies born too soon in 1939.

If I’m not mistaken some hospitals these days recommend that mothers of preemies express milk for them as opposed to giving them formula. Correct me if I’m wrong on that.